#52FilmsByWomen: BRIDGET JONES’S BABY

36/52 BRIDGET JONES’S BABY

The new BRIDGET JONES installment, directed by Sharon Maguire, is everything you want it to be: funny, wicked, clever, heartfelt and joyful. It’s the perfect film to see with girlfriends or by yourself with a cocktail after a bad day (as I did).

Maguire directed the first film to great acclaim. She was a UK television news/documentary/commercial director and was friends with author Helen Fielding, who based the character of Shazzer on Maguire. It was Maguire’s first feature but she pulled it off beautifully. After so much time away from our zany Jones, with the world having greatly altered during that time, I think it was a wise decision to bring back Maguire, whose humanity infuses every frame of this film.

Another stroke of luck is that Emma Thompson co-wrote the screenplay and appears as Bridget’s deadpan OB/GYN. I feel certain that much of the feminist, naughty and dry-humored dialogue must have originated with Thompson.